Retuning the portfolio to growth
A leading digital media company had recently been acquired by a private equity investment group with six brands in six markets and needed to grow sustainably and profitably.
A leading digital media company with a portfolio of iconic B2B brands had experienced static growth in recent years due to a lack of management focus, whilst rising competitive intensity was eroding operating margin. Management needed to quickly develop a corporate strategy that enabled them to make decisions about where and how to grow its portfolio. Management turned to Focus Solutions for assistance.
Corporate strategy is amongst the most difficult to get right because of inherent complexity but it also presents an opportunity to grow outwardly and inwardly from leveraging core competitive advantage(s) across the portfolio. The solution was to help management better understand why the Group was the ‘best owner’ for each business in the portfolio – the overarching commercial rationale it brought to winning in each market space.
Our approach was to work with each of the six businesses to stress-test existing strategy and business plan before recommending adjustments that both strengthened the portfolio and the competitive position of each business from leveraging the portfolio’s core and differentiating capabilities of product modularisation, subscription marketing and sales, and new product launch speed.
We worked with management to create appropriate performance metrics for each business, identify new company acquisitions and divest businesses where no compelling’ right to win’ from leveraging capabilities, existed. Management now have the DNA for growth.
